I don’t know anyone who gets it totally right when it comes to spending their time how they’d like to. But I’ve learned quite a few useful things over the years…
As we come up to the Christmas break and start considering the next year, it’s a great opportunity to think about our greatest asset – the only one we can’t get back – time.
Time spent at work. Time spent on your business. Time spent with family and friends.
Time spent on leisure. Time spent on social media. Time spent on chores. Time spent faffing.
What time really adds value to your life, and the lives of those around you?
“An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing”
– Dale Carnegie
I once learned this the hard way by travelling four hours to discover I’d left something crucial back at work. Four hours travelling back, picked it up, and four hours there again.
This is an extreme example,but planning your work week on a Friday or Sunday night, or planning your next day’s tasks the night before can save a lot of time and aggravation.
I find just 10 minutes planning really sets me up for having a more successful day. Spending 10 minutes making sure all your tools and materials are organised and complete for the following day is useful too.
Pareto’s Principle states that 80% of outcomes comes from 20% of effort. In other words, we can always find ways to be more efficient. If we can spend more time doing those 20% of really effective tasks, then we’ll get a lot more done.
It can also apply to our leisure and family or friends time too, we often get and give the most value in just 20% of the time, so spend more quality time doing what you love doing.
A 20 minute meal without phones is so much more satisfying and leads to deeper conversations than watching two hours of telly together, and probably spending most of it on our phones (I’m guilty of this one).
The Pomodoro Method is really useful when you’ve got a very long task to do. You set a timer – usually about 25 minutes – and then blitz the task for that amount of time, take a quick break (if I want to) then blitz again.
It’s amazing how good a regular alarm is at keeping you from drifting or faffing! Well, I do anyway. You can either use a phone timer, or there are Pomodoro apps as well.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Book in learning time. Whatever age we are, we can still learn, and humans get a lot of intellectual and emotional satisfaction from learning new things – whether it’s work-based or leisure-based.
Learning new stuff helps us to grow,and keeps our brains going for longer. Ask other decorators what they do to be more efficient too, whether it’s dust-extraction sanding, spraying, better brushes, better techniques. There are always ways in which you can improve.
Now you may not have a problem with putting time aside for leisure, family or friends – but I know I struggle with this, what with trying to run two businesses right now. It can be easy to just work, work, work.
Putting time in our diaries to do stuff we enjoy, especially if we have to book it and pay in advance, is a great time to make sure we’re doing stuff that recharges the batteries.
Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling… If you find you’re spending too much time on social media, then you can either set up time limits on your phone or switch off notifications.
A good rule of thumb is to ‘create before you consume’ – so before you start scrolling on social media, post something. Not only is creating better for your brain than consuming, but it can help with your online relationships and marketing.
Clear communication.
So much time is wasted by people getting the wrong end of the stick, and it can cause conflict too.
Just imagine if a customer says to you at the end of the day “no, I wanted the ceiling blue and the walls white”… I know, unlikely, but you get the gist.
With really important emails and messages, I usually read them twice, and with face to face conversations I’ll check instructions by repeating back to people what they say, especially if it’s something that will take a lot of time.
It’s that old ‘measure twice cut once’ adage, it’s about making sure you’re doing the right thing. The other useful phrase is ‘if you’re climbing a ladder, make sure it’s against the right wall’.
Want to learn more?
Find me at www.chinbadgermedia.co.uk